iaabdla  Sltohitnt 

BY 

CLARA  A.  NELSON 


publication  (@fficc 

HI onmn ’a  Jiforeign  (HUtaaitmarg  J^octetg 
jJHciljobiai  ppiacopal  (Uljurclj 
^oaton,  (iHaaaachnaEita- 


Price  Two  Cents 


Isabella  ®f)oburn 

$ij  (Elara  A.  Nrlamt 

SABELLA  THOBURN,  the 
first  missionary  of  the 
Woman’s  Foreign  Mission¬ 
ary  Society,  was  horn  on  a 
farm  near  St.  Clairsville, 
Ohio,  March  29,  1840.  She 
was  peculiarly  fortunate  in 
her  ancestry  —  that  happy  mingling  known 
as  Scotch-Irish  —  and  in  the  influences 
surrounding  her  early  years.  With  parents 
intelligent  and  strong,  making  the  Chris¬ 
tian  life  real  to  their  children  and  filled 
with  the  missionary  spirit,  she  received 
a  rich  inheritance  of  faith  and  the  added 
qualities  of  endurance  and  vision  that 
fitted  her  for  the  pioneer  work  of  her  mature 
years. 

Her  education  was  begun  in  the  local 
district  school  and  continued  in  the  Female 
Seminary  of  Wheeling,  West  Virginia. 
After  graduation  she  taught  for  a  time, 
and  then  returned  to  the  seminary  —  which 
had  in  the  meantime  been  elevated  to 
collegiate  rank  —  completing  an  advanced 
course  marked  out  by  herself.  Later  she 
studied  for  a  year  in  an  art  school  in 
Cincinnati.  Leaying  school  with  a  well 
disciplined  mind  and  a  finely  cultivated 
literary  taste,  she  again  entered  upon 
a  varied  experience  in  teaching,  filling 
positions  of  increasing  responsibility  and 
adding  to  her  foundation  work  —  the  best 
to  be  had  at  the  time  —  the  practical 
experience  that  was  preparing  her  to 

2 


.Isabella  QIl|nburrt 


become  our  foremost  educator  in  a  foreign 
land. 

Miss  Thoburn’s  literary  ability  was  of  a 
high  order  and  the  temptation  to  enter 
upon  this  sort  of  a  career  was  at  one  time 
very  strong.  Similarly,  when  the  Civil 
War  made  its  demands  upon  her  sympa¬ 
thies,  she  displayed  rare  skill  as  a  nurse, 
and  thought  seriously  of  entering  upon 
regular  training.  But  the  latter  experience 
like  all  others  in  her  early  life,  was  but 
a  preparation  for  what  was  to  follow. 

Although  she  was  a  deeply  spiritual 
woman.  Miss  Thoburn  could  never  point 
to  the  day  or  hour  of  her  conversion. 
She  seems  to  have  unfolded  like  a  flower 
in  the  sunlight  of  God’s  love,  developing 
so  gradually  that  she  arrived  at  the  beauty 
of  full  bloom,  unconscious  of  the  change. 
Although  reared  in  a  home  where  missions 
were  constantly  the  subject  of  prayer 
and  of  self-sacrificing  giving,  and  from 
which  later  a  brother  went  to  India,  she 
did  not  early  have  a  distinct  call  to  for¬ 
eign  mission  work.  Her  thought  was 
simply  to  fit  herself  as  best  she  might  for 
the  work  that  the  Master  should  send 
to  her. 

But  the  definite  call  was  soon  to  come, 
and  through  her  brother  —  now  one  of 
India’s  four  missionary  bishops  —in  whose 
work  she  was  already  greatly  interested. 
The  peculiar  disabilities  of  the  women  of 
India,  due  to  a  long-continued  system  of 
deprivation  and  degradation,  offered  a 
difficult  problem  in  the  evangelization 
of  that  great  land,  which  no  man  —  how¬ 
ever  able  or  consecrated  —  could  solve. 


3 


« 

jfeatrrUa  QJhulutnt 


Writing  to  his  sister  of  his  desire  to  estab¬ 
lish  a  school  for  women,  Dr.  Thoburn 
pnt  to  her  the  question  :  “How  would 
you  like  to  come  out  and  take  charge 
of  such  a  school  ?  ”  He  wrote  almost  care¬ 
lessly,  scarcely  expecting  an  answer.  What 
was  his  surprise  to  receive  by  return  steamer 
the  response  :  “I  shall  come  as  soon  as 
a  way  is  open  for  me  to  do  so.” 

Isabella  Thoburn’s  higher  call  had  come, 
but  with  the  Missionary  Society  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church'  actually  em¬ 
barrassed  by  the  appearance  of  a  woman 
candidate  for  the  foreign  field,  “the  way” 
seemed  as  yet  scarcely  open.  God  had 
His  own  plan,  however,  and  even  then 
was  prompting  the  hearts  of  Mrs.  Dr. 
Butler  and  Mrs.  Dr.  Parker  —  recently 
returned  from  India,  and  burdened  with 
the  needs  of  India’s  daughters  —  to  find 
“the  way.’*  This  was  nothing  less  than 
the  organization  of  a  new  foreign  mis¬ 
sionary  society. 

The  dramatic  story  of  the  founding  of 
the  Woman’s  Foreign  Missionary  Society 
cannot  be  repeated  here.  Its  first  mission¬ 
ary  candidate,  all  unknown  to  the  little 
group  of  women  who  met  that  stormy 
March  day  in  Boston,  was  waiting  in  Ohio, 
equally  unaware  that  the  agency  that 
should  enable  her  to  go  was  at  hand,  but 
it  was  not  long  before  the  meeting  took 
place,  and  Miss  Thoburn,  with  Dr.  Swain  — 
divinely  called  at  this  same  time  to  the  min¬ 
istry  of  healing  —  sailed  for  India,  to  “lay 
broad  and  deep’’  the  foundations  of  the 
many-sided  work  of  the  Society.  This  was 
in  the  year  1869.  It  is  difficult  to  decide 

4 


JlsabrUa  uJlroliurit 


which  had  the  greater  faith  —  the  few 
women  who  sent  the  missionaries  out, 
not  knowing  whence  should  come  the 
money  for  their  support,  or  the  two  who 
went  forth  with  no  path  marked  out,  no 
precedents  to  guide  them,  blazing  their  own 
trail,  like  the  traveler  in  a  virgin  forest. 

With  her  remarkable  grasp  of  the  needs 
of  a  situation.  Miss  Thoburn  saw  at  once 
that  educational  work  was  a  fundamental 
necessity  for  the  women  of  India.  But  at 
precisely  this  point  she  met  with  deter¬ 
mined  opposition,  not  only  from  the  native 
Hindus  —  to  whom  the  idea  was  nothing 
less  than  preposterous  —  but  from  English 
and  American  residents  as  well,  who  tim¬ 
orously  feared  the  outcome  of  educating 
the  native  women. 

She  held  steadily  to  her  conviction, 
however,  and  soon  opened  a  little  school 
in  the  Aminabad  bazaar,  Lucknow,  where 
gathered  seven  timid  girls  and  the  “ad¬ 
venturous  lady  teacher  who  had  coaxed 
them  to  come.”  This  school  was  soon 
transferred  to  a  private  room,  and  later 
to  a  private  house,  and  at  length  its  num¬ 
bers  had  so  increased  —  and  the  Society 
at  home  had  so  gained  in  strength  —  that 
it  was  removed  to  Lai  Bagh,  the  Rose  Garden, 
a  beautiful  estate  purchased  from  its 
Moslem  owner  at  a  cost  of  $7,000. 

At  the  close  of  the  first  year  in  this 
new  location  —  the  most  desirable  in  the 
city  of  Lucknow  —  the  school  was  made  a 
boarding  school,  thus  greatly  enhancing 
its  possibilities  and  providing  the  home, 
whose  atmosphere  of  Christian  love  and 
gracious  hospitality  was  the  appropriate 

5 


SsabrUa  ©tjubunt 


setting  for  the  great  work  of  its  founder. 
The  curriculum  was  gradually  enlarged 
and  the  courses  made  more  advanced,  and 
finally,  in  1887,  the  school  became  the 
Lucknow  Woman’s  College  —  the  first 
Christian  college  for  women  in  all  Asia. 
It  was  a  glad  day  when  this  advance  was 
made,  for  it  meant  that  in  her  unceasing 
battle  against  apathy  and  determined 
opposition  Miss  Thoburn  had  won  the 
victory  for  the  education  of  India’s  woman¬ 
hood.  That  the  school  should  later 
bear  her  name  was  but  a  fitting  recognition 
of  her  work. 

The  college  is  affiliated  with  the  Univer¬ 
sity  of  Calcutta,  and  upon  passing  the 
necessary  examinations  its  graduates  re¬ 
ceive  a  degree  and  a  diploma  to  which  the 
seal  of  the  University  is  affixed.  The  bril¬ 
liant  record  made  by  some  of  the  candidates 
attests  the  strength  of  the  curriculum  and 
the  efficiency  of  its  teaching  force.  Merely 
intellectual  training,  however,  was  by  no 
means  Miss  Thoburn’s  ideal.  Her  girls 
were  to  be  trained  for  service,  for  she  wisely 
saw  that  only  by  trained  native  women  can 
the  great  mass  of  India’s  womanhood  be 
redeemed.  Phoebe  Rowe,  the  sweet  singer, 
with  her  wonderful  power  as  an  evangelist, 
and  Lilavati  Singh,  with  her  brilliant 
scholarship  and  devoted  Christian  charac¬ 
ter,  are  typical  exponents  of  the  training 
to  which  the  Isabella  Thoburn  College  is 
pledged,  and  its  graduates  are  making 
themselves  felt  in  every  branch  of  Christian 
work,  as  teachers,  missionaries,  physicians, 
writers,  and  centers  of  Christian  homes. 

Miss  Thoburn’s  labors  were  not  con- 


6 


ilaahrUa  Qlljobant 


fined  exclusively  to  the  school,  hut  she 
found  time  to  establish  Sunday  schools, 
to  visit  in  the  zenanas,  to  found  the  Girls’ 
High  School  in  Cawnpore,  and  to  edit 
for  a  time  one  of  the  zenana  papers  es¬ 
tablished  by  the  Society  during  the  cen¬ 
tennial  year  of  Methodism  (1883).  Not 
least  of  all,  while  on  her  second  visit 
to  the  home  land  —  a  health  leave  of 
five  years  —  she  aided  Mrs.  Lucy  Ryder 
Meyer  in  establishing  the  Chicago  Dea¬ 
coness  Training  School,  and,  seeing  the 
great  value  of  such  work  for  India,  she 
took  the  full  course  herself  in  order  that 
she  might  adequately  project  this 
new  enterprise  on  her  return.  Later 
she  inaugurated  a  similar  work  in  Cin¬ 
cinnati. 

Her  third  visit  to  America  was  made  the 
occasion  of  a  plea  for  funds  for  her  beloved 
college.  Accompanied  by  Miss  Singh  she 
went  up  and  down  this  broad  land  making 
addresses  and  appeals.  The  call  was 
heard  by  many  consecrated  young  women, 
and  the  needs  of  the  college  were  most 
effectively  brought  home  to  the  heart  and 
conscience  of  the  Church. 

She  went  back  to  India  and  was  again 
happy  and  busy  in  her  work,  when  sud¬ 
denly,  without  warning,  she  was  not,  for 
God  took  her.  She  died  as  she  had  wished, 
quickly,  and  without  a  long  season  of 
suffering,  of  Asiatic  cholera,  the  dread 
disease  through  which  she  had  nursed 
so  many.  Her  last  day  on  earth  was  full 
of  duties  lovingly  performed  ;  had  she 
known  that  it  was  the  last,  she  could 
not  have  used  it  better. 

•  1 


jlaabrlla  aljiihitru 


No  woman  in  Methodism  was  more 
widely  known  or  more  highly  revered. 
Her  death  was  deplored  as  an  irreparable 
loss  to  the  work  in  India,  but  she  had 
laid  its  foundations  too  deep  to  be  shaken, 
even  by  her  own  withdrawal,  and  the 
impress  of  her  character  upon  her  fel¬ 
low  workers  is  so  abiding  that  they  feel 
the  added  responsibility  of  doing  the 
work  as  she  would  have  done  it  herself. 

What  she  was  to  the  church  is  well 
known  :  a  great  leader  with  a  far-reach¬ 
ing  vision  ;  with  the  faith  that  removes 
mountains  ;  with  the  tact,  insight  into 
character,  broad  sympathies,  and  strong 
intellect  that  set  her  apart  for  her  great 
work.  What  she  was  to  those  who  felt 
the  rare  charm  of  her  personality,  who 
saw  the  brave  life,  lived  day  by  day  as  in 
the  sight  of  Him  who  is  invisible,  who 
caught  a  glimpse  of  her  own  vision  of 
India  redeemed, —  this  is  too  sacred  for 
words.  What  she  was  to  the  women  of 
India,  to  whom  she  brought  education  and 
the  gospel  of  Christ  and  for  whom  she 
gave  her  life,  —  this  will  be  seen  more 
and  more  as  the  years  go  by  and  the  waves 
of  influence  reach  out  farther  and  farther, 
but  it  will  never  be  fully  known  until 
we  stand  in  the  presence  of  the  Master 
and  see  the  full  meaning  of  a  life  utterly 
surrendered  to  His  service. 


Reprint  19)- 


